Lucky Dip - Jan Thomson
I was a wee bit nervous when I opened the courier parcel from Art Supplies – I told Matt that he could choose what I reviewed this week! So, some Daler-Rowney Aquafine watercolours are here to play with today.
I also suggested that he choose the colours for me – and that was interesting, very different from my usual palette choices.
Paynes Grey (NEVER used that!), Cadmium Yellow Hue, Rowney Orange, Rose Madder, Scarlet Lake, and Mauve. Hmmmmm… well... I guess the first thing is to find out about the paint from the Daler-Rowney website and see what I’m using.
Aquafine is the DR student/ hobby artist grade, which is not what I usually paint with, but we’ll give it a go.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the paints were vibrant and strong and easy to wash with. Colours with “hue” in the name should be approached with caution – these are cheaper pigments and will never give you exactly the same results as a genuine pigment. I don’t know how the DR ones will last but only time will tell.
The paints were certainly nice to paint with and I found a subject which I could use those colours for – a rumpety old shed that we spotted in Golden Bay a few weeks ago. Paynes Grey? I’d probably not use this on its own, but as it has blue in it I found that I could make lovely greens using that plus yellow or orange. And combined with mauve it made a luscious black. Good choice of colours, Matt!
So, if you’re a beginner or student I’d happily recommend Aquafine watercolours – I think that these will be an economical way to play with paint , and an interesting range of colours to mix.
It was a serendipitous lucky dip.
